Jalandhar: Alleging that more than 40% of academic posts in the state’s teacher training institutions were lying vacant in Punjab, Congress MLA and former education minister Pargat Singh called it an extremely alarming situation for the state’s education system. He said that the same govt, which made grand claims of bringing about an ‘education revolution’ under its own administration, allowed the very institutions responsible for training teachers to suffer from an acute shortage of faculty. “Similarly, more than 18,000 teaching posts are lying vacant in Punjab’s government schools. The districts most affected include Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Amritsar. The shortage is also severe in the state’s five border districts. According to available data, Punjab has a total of 1,03,000 sanctioned government teaching posts, of which 17.48% remain vacant. This clearly shows the government’s lack of attention to the issue. Instead, the government appears to be more focused on using force against protesters,” Pargat said in a statement issued on Wednesday. He said that a review conducted by the Central govt revealed that 31% of academic posts in the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and 45% of academic posts in the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) were vacant. He said that if the govt was genuinely committed to education reform, it must move beyond publicity campaigns and focus on strengthening institutional capacity. MSID: 132712977 413 |
